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Reproduced below is the
text of the proclamation issued by Ukrainian President Vinichenko on 20
November 1917.

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With the disintegration of
the Russian monarchy in February 1917 nationalist Ukrainian leaders moved
swiftly to seek a form of independence within the Russian union, a desire
granted by the Provisional Government in July 1917. With the success
of the Bolshevik October Revolution of the same year however, the Ukrainians
found themselves accused of essentially aiding and abetting anti-Bolshevik
forces within Russia.

Ukrainian President
Vinichenko consequently issued the proclamation of autonomy below in
response to the unrest within Russia. He reiterated the Ukraine's
desire to remain autonomous within a wider Russian union - to no avail.
The following month, December 1917, brought the Ukraine into civil war
against Bolshevik forces. (Click
here to read Lenin's ultimatum on the subject dated 17 December
1917.)

Ultimately the Ukrainians
sought protection from the Germans with whom they negotiated a peace treaty
at Best-Litovsk in 1918 (click
here to read Vinichenko's formal plea for inclusion at the peace
conference). Exacting a heavy economic price for their
support the Germans duly took the Ukrainians' side and obliged the
Bolsheviks to accept an autonomous Ukraine. The Ukraine declared
independence on 22 January 1918. (Click
here to read the terms of the peace treaty agreed between the
Ukraine and the Central Powers.)

Ukraine President
Vinichenko's Proclamation on Independence, 20 November 1917 (Issued by Ukrainian
National Socialistic Council)

Ukrainian people and all
peoples of the Ukraine!

An hour of trials and
difficulties has come for the land of the Russian Republic. In the north
in the capitals (Petrograd and Moscow) a bloody internecine struggle is in
progress. A Central Government no longer exists, and anarchy, disorder,
and ruin are spreading throughout the State.

Our country also is in danger.
Without a strong, united, and popular Government, Ukrainia also may fall into
the abyss of civil war, slaughter, and destruction.

People of Ukrainia, you,
together with the brother peoples of Ukrainia, have entrusted us with the task
of protecting rights won by struggle, of creating order and of building up a new
life in our land. And we, the Ukrainian Central Rada, by your will, for
the sake of creating order in our country and for the sake of saving the whole
of Russia, announce that henceforth Ukrainia becomes the Ukrainian National
Republic.

Without separating from the
Russian Republic, and preserving its unity, we take up our stand firmly on our
lands that with our strength we may help the whole of Russia, and that the whole
Russian Republic may become a federation of free and equal peoples.

Until the Ukrainian Constituent
Assembly meets, the whole power of creating order in our lands, of issuing laws,
and of ruling, belongs to us, the Ukrainian Central Rada, and to our Government
- the General Secretariat of Ukrainia.

Having strength and power in
our native land, we shall defend the rights of the revolution, not only in our
own lands, but in all Russia as well.

Therefore we announce: To the
territory of the National Ukrainian Republic belong the lands where the majority
of the population is Ukrainian: Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Tchernigov, Poltava,
Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Kherson, Tauris (without the Crimea).

The further delimitation of the
frontiers of the Ukrainian National Republic, viz., the addition of part of
Kursk, Kholm, Voronez, and the neighbouring provinces and districts, where the
majority of the population is Ukrainian, is to be settled according to the
organized wishes of the peoples.

To all the citizens of these
lands we announce: Henceforth in the territory of the Ukrainian National
Republic the existing rights of ownership to the lands of large proprietors and
other lands not worked by the owners which are fit for farming, and also to
lands belonging to the royal family, to monasteries, to the Crown and to the
Church, are abolished.

Recognizing that these lands
are the property of the whole working people, and must pass to the people
without compensation, the Ukrainian Central Rada instructs the General Secretary
for Land Questions to work out immediately a law for the administration of these
lands by Land Committees, chosen by the people, until the meeting of the
Ukrainian Constituent Assembly.

The labour question in the
Ukrainian National Republic must immediately be regulated. For the present
we announce: In the territory of the National Ukrainian Republic henceforth an
eight hours' day is ordained in the factories and workshops.

The hour of trial and danger
which all Russia and our Ukrainia is now experiencing necessitates the proper
regulation of labour, and a fair distribution of food supplies and a better
organization of work. Therefore, we instruct the General Secretary for
Labour, together with representatives of labour, to establish from today State
control over production in Ukrainia, respecting the interests both of Ukrainia
and also the whole of Russia.

For four years on the front
blood has been shed, and the strength of all the peoples of the world has been
wasting away. By the wishes and in the name of the Ukrainian Republic we,
the Ukrainian Central Rada, firmly insist on the establishment of peace as soon
as possible. For this end we make resolute efforts to compel, through the
Central Government, both allies and enemies to enter immediately upon peace
negotiations.

Likewise we shall insist that
at the Peace Congress the rights of the Ukrainian people in Russia and outside
Russia shall not be infringed in the treaty of peace. But until peace
conies, every citizen of the Republic of Ukrainia, together with the citizens of
all the peoples of the Russian Republic, must stand firmly in their positions
both at the front and in the rear.

Recently the shining conquests
of the revolution have been clouded by the reestablishment of the death penalty.
We announce: Henceforth in the lands of the Republic of Ukrainia the death
penalty is abolished. To all who are imprisoned and arrested for political
offences hitherto committed, as well as those already condemned or awaiting
sentence, and also those who have not yet been tried, full amnesty is given.
A law will immediately be passed to this effect.

The courts in Ukrainia must be
just and in accordance with the spirit of the people.

With this aim we order the
General Secretary for Judicial Affairs to make every attempt to establish
justice and to execute it according to rules understood by the people.

We instruct the General
Secretary for Internal Affairs as follows: To make every effort to strengthen
and extend the rights of local self-government, which shall be the organs of the
highest local administrative authority, and until the establishment of the
closest connection with the organs of revolutionary democracy, which are to be
the best foundation of a free democratic life.

Also in the Ukrainian National
Republic all the liberties won by the Russian revolution are to be guaranteed,
namely, freedom of the press, of speech, of religion, of assembly, of union, of
strikes, of inviolability of person and of habitation, the right and the
possibility of using local dialects in dealing with all authorities.

The Ukrainian people, which has
fought for many years for its national freedom and now has won it, will firmly
protect the freedom of national development of all nationalities existing in
Ukrainia.

Therefore, we announce that to
the Great Russian, Jewish, Polish, and other peoples of Ukrainia we recognize
national personal autonomy for the security of their rights and freedom of
self-government in questions of their national life, and we instruct our General
Secretary for Nationality Questions to draw up in the near future a measure for
national personal autonomy.

The food question is the
foundation of the power of the State at this difficult and responsible moment.
The Ukrainian National Republic must make every effort to save itself both at
the front and in those parts of the Russian Republic which need our help.

Citizens! In the name of
the National Ukrainian Republic in federal Russia, we, the Ukrainian Central
Rada, call upon all to struggle resolutely with all forms of anarchy and
disorder, and to help in the great work of building up new State forms, which
will give the great and powerful Russian Republic health, strength, and a new
future.

The working out of these forms
must be carried out at the Ukrainian and all-Russian Constituent Assemblies.

The date for the election of
the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly is fixed for January 9, 1918, and the date
for its summoning January 22, 1918.

A law will be immediately
published regulating the summoning of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly.